by SD Tanner
Kat laughed and replied, ‘Yes there is, and I’ll send you there to be checked over by our medics. After that you can be assigned to the island or back here for training.’
Fabulous, he thought happily and he smiled at her.
Later he and Kat were taken to the ship by helicopter and the more he saw the more his rage burbled at how organized they were. When Chuckles said they had bases this isn’t what he expected. They were more of threat to his plans than he had realized and he supposed he should have taken the four more seriously from the start. Once they arrived, he was assigned to a room and Kat walked him to his guest cabin where he met a man called Chris.
Chris looked at him resentfully and complained to Kat, ‘But we already have five people in here. It’s impossible to sleep with the noise, plus the toilet doesn’t work properly.’
‘Yes, I know,’ Kat replied firmly. ‘The engineers are working on it, Chris.’
‘And there are rats on the ship,’ Chris continued to complain. ‘It isn’t healthy. I could get sick!’
Kat sighed and said, ‘I know. We’re working on it.’
After Kat had left, he smiled sympathetically at Chris and said, ‘You don’t sound happy.’
‘I’m not,’ Chris complained. ‘I was on a boat and then these guys showed up and took over the whole show, and not for the better.’
‘Who took it over?’ He asked innocently.
‘Gears, Pax, TL and that freaky woman they’ve got,’ Chris whined, now warming to the subject. ‘She’s some kind of tamed hunter, but she’s dangerous. She could kill us!’
Now in full flight, Chris continued, ‘Captain Ted completely dumped us. He’s living on the land, high-on-the-hog and abandoned us. We trusted him and look what he did. I’m not the only one unhappy with how this place is running.’
Realizing his enemies had enemies, he smiled and then he frowned and thought, their enemies whine a lot. He might have to kill this one just to shut him up. Smiling again, he tutted sympathetically and while Chris continued to complain, he imagined what Chris might look like being eaten by one of his hunters. Thoroughly bored by Chris, he reached with his mind.
Hunter ruler: Where are you my dear? I am near.
Tessa speaks: You’re here? Where are you?
Hunter ruler: Near my dear. No need to fear.
Settling onto the bunk bed he was assigned, he watched Chris storm about the room and waited to see what opportunity would unfold.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Happy talk (TL)
The horses were grazing on the farming island and he stood and admired their peace and grace.
‘Looking at them, you wouldn’t believe anything was different,’ he remarked to Izzie.
‘Why do we have horses?’ Izzie asked curiously.
He put his arm around her shoulder and said honestly, ‘It’s not a home without horses.’
Smiling at him, she replied, ‘I feel the same way about cats.’
‘Do we have cats?’ He asked, sounding surprised.
Clearly thinking he asked a stupid question, she answered, ‘Yes, TL, we have cats. Pop thinks they’re the answer to the ship’s rat problem.’
He smiled at her and said, ‘We should head back.’
They both turned and stretching ahead of them was a farm with paddocks of pigs, sheep and dairy cattle. Down the center of the island were row upon row of vegetables growing. Right now they only grew vegetables for human consumption and relied on shipping animal feed from the mainland. They had several vets monitoring the welfare of the animals to keep them healthy and avoid disease destroying their stock. It wasn’t possible to grow and farm enough food to feed twelve thousand people, but even if it wasn’t in large amounts, some fresh food was now on the menu.
From where they stood at the far end of the island, it was possible to see how far they’d come in just a few short months. It hadn’t been easy to find and capture the livestock and the vets were strict about what animals were brought to the island. Animals were checked and quarantined before being allowed onto the farming island. They grew only basic vegetables like pumpkins, cabbages, carrots and beans, but any fresh food was gratefully accepted by pretty much everyone. They also had several large outdoor pens for the chickens, but with so many people, fresh eggs remained a luxury.
Tonight they were slaughtering eight pigs that didn’t pass the vets clearance and weren’t allowed onto the farming island. In celebration of achieving so much so quickly, Kat decided to throw a party on the other island where everyone lived. It would be the first event on Haven and he hoped Kat talked Gears into lifting his dry dock rule for the night.
Since Izzie set him straight about her expectations of him, they’d grown closer. He didn’t think he was behaving any differently, but if she was happy then so was he. They climbed back on the ATV they’d ridden down the long stretch of beach. Izzie wrapped her arms around his waist and he took off back down the beach towards the bridge between the two islands. He couldn’t remember a more perfect moment. Riding along the beach, sand flying behind them, sea to his left with a woman wrapped around his waist and the pleasant warmth of the early evening. As he rode, he could see people still working on the farms, watering, weeding and caring for the animals. The island was just seven miles long and it only took twenty minutes for them to get back to the bridge.
Crossing the short bridge they’d constructed, he pulled the ATV into the resort entrance. Leaving the keys in the ATV, he and Izzie headed into the large open-air restaurant. The island had more than reached its capacity and was now home to two thousand people. They housed people in the original resort, plus there were several hundred shipping containers neatly lined up on the now cleared land. Baldy hadn’t been too pleased about them mowing down the forested areas on both islands, but as he watched Baldy laughing loudly and holding court in the restaurant, he figured he’d gotten over it. He saw Gears, Pax and Captain Ted sitting together at one of the tables and he and Izzie walked over to them.
‘Hey! What’s happenin’, bro’,’ Pax called jovially.
‘It’s all good,’ he replied with a wide smile.
Sniffing the air deeply, Gears asked, ‘Can ya smell that?’
Looking over at the barbeque pits, he said, ‘Yep. Smells good.’
‘What? The sea air or the pigs on spits?’ Izzie asked.
Gears looked at Izzie as if she had lost her mind and said loudly, ‘Pig! Don’t need sea air. I live on a goddamned ship.’
‘Doan mind him,’ Pax said mildly. ‘His girlfriend doan talk and now he dunno how to talk nice to women.’
‘Only now?’ He asked.
‘Shaddup both of ya,’ Gears rumbled.
Captain Ted grinned at Izzie and, slapping the chair next to him, he said ‘Sit the hell down, honey.’
Izzie shook her head and said, ‘No thanks. I’ve seen enough animals for today.’ Turning to him, she kissed him and said, ‘I’ll catch you later.’
With the limited space on the island he, Pax, Gears, Captain Ted and Ip were staying in Baldy’s underground bunker. There was room for two hundred people in the bunker, but it only had sleeping accommodation for forty. Mostly it was kept available for people rotating between the land bases, the ship and the islands. Watching Izzie as she weaved her way through the crowd, he caught the party atmosphere that was building all around them. Pop told him there were eight pigs slaughtered that day and he assumed there would be plenty to go around. Their cook, Harry, and his kitchen staff were working overtime and were bringing trays of food and drinks to the buffet area. As the last of the sunlight disappeared, lights strung across the ceiling of the restaurant flickered to life and music was playing through the speakers.
Sitting down with his brothers, he asked, ‘Gears, did you lift the alcohol ban for the night?’
Before Gears could answer, Benny appeared by his side and put down a dozen beers. Grabbing a beer, Gears said, ‘Hell no! That would be wrong.’
Grabbing a beer, he said, �
�What have you guys been up to?’
‘Hunter huntin’,’ Captain Ted said cheerfully. He raised his bottle to Pax and Gears and they banged their bottles as a toast.
Clearly they had been up to something and he asked, ‘What’d I miss this time?’
‘Found a super hunter and his dogs up near Atlanta,’ Pax replied happily.
Grinning, Gears said, ‘And a new alliance. A biker gang.’ Looking around, he added, ‘Their leader, Wolfie’s here somewhere.’
They obviously had a successful day and he asked, ‘Good day?’
‘Yep and we’ll be havin’ a few more of ‘em,’ Gears replied decisively. ‘We gotta get away from bein’ administrators and get on with the real mission. It’s time.’
He agreed with Gears. It’d been eight months since the outbreak of the virus. They set up the land bases, farming sites, virus research and formed alliances exactly as they planned. He didn’t think any of them expected to find this many survivors so quickly and managing the set up for this many people had absorbed every minute of every day for months. He knew this frustrated Gears and he was unsurprised to find him handing off the administration of the sites at the earliest opportunity.
He took a swig of his beer and asked, ‘So what’s the plan now, Gears?’
Answering for Gears, Pax said, ‘Gonna eat pig.’
Pulling a disgusted face, Captain Ted said, ‘Dude, that sounds so wrong.’
‘Shaddup,’ Gears said rudely. ‘Ya both stupid.’ Flicking his thumb at Pax and Captain Ted, he added, ‘Gonna take Cheech and Chong here and go on the offensive.’
‘That won’t be hard,’ he replied dryly. ‘They’re both naturally offensive.’
Gears narrowed his eyes at him and said, ‘Don’t ya start. I gotta put up with these two clowns all day long.’
He snorted at him. He knew damn well Gears and Pax enjoyed arguing all day and always assumed it gave them something to do, but if anyone was long-suffering, it was him.
‘So what do you want me to do?’ He asked.
‘Your call,’ Gears replied candidly. ‘Ya can come with us, or ya can stay runnin’ the bases.’
Wanting to know what Gears needed him to do, he asked, ‘Got a preference?’
‘Ya should come with us,’ Pax interrupted. ‘Yer too old to change jobs.’
He shrugged. He didn’t want to be in the rear with the gear either. He did what Gears had asked him to do and found survivors, sourced sites and supplies, but he was getting bored with doing logistics as well and asked ‘I’m in, so what are we doing next?’
Gears leaned forward at the table and they all leaned in with him and he said, ‘We work with Ip and Isaac to locate the super hunters or the other CDCs. We do whichever comes up first.’
‘What about the designer virus?’ He asked.
Shaking his head, Gears said grimly, ‘That don’t need us, TL. People gonna make their own mind up about that. If they go for it, then we get more hunter killers. If they don’t, then we keep doin’ what we’re doin’.’
Pax agreed, ‘Right now killin’ super hunters is high risk work. Like Gears says, we gotta learn how to do it easier so we can develop tactics and teach others.’
‘We did fuckin’ good at that mall,’ Captain Ted interjected.
Gears looked at him as if he was nuts and said, ‘No we didn’t. It took eleven people, plus a pilot and a co-pilot to take down one super hunter.’
‘That’s true,’ Pax agreed grumpily. ‘And accordin’ to Ip, that asshole ain’t dead anyways.’
‘We don’t know that,’ Gears objected. ‘That’s jus’ the way Ip’s brain works. It don’t make it true.’
‘Did ya jus’ call yer girlfriend crazy?’ Pax asked in disbelief. ‘Cos she’s kinda weird, but I ain’t seen crazy yet.’ He paused and added thoughtfully, ‘Other than bein’ with you.’
Gears pulled a face and explained, ‘I ain’t sayin’ she’s crazy. I’m jus’ sayin’ her world view is a bit different is all.’
Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Kat and Wolfie. Wolfie was carrying a tray of roast pig and Kat put down a plate of bread rolls, bottle of ketchup and tub of mayonnaise. Sitting down at the table with them, she grinned and said, ‘It’s not fancy, but it is fresh food.’
Conversation was suspended while they made up bread rolls packed with freshly roasted pig.
With his mouth full of his roast pig sandwich, Gears asked, ‘Have ya seen Ip?’
‘She’s with Pop,’ Kat replied.
With his sandwich in his hand, Gears got up and left.
Still puzzling about whether Ip really could see super hunters after they were dead, he turned to Pax and asked, ‘Do you think that’s true? Do you think the super hunters can come back even after we kill them?’
‘Doan sound right, but a lotta shit doan sound right no more,’ Pax said, washing down a mouthful of roast pig sandwich with beer.
‘Does it fuckin’ matter?’ Captain Ted asked. ‘It just means we got to kill the fuckers more than once.’
Both he and Pax snorted, and Pax said, ‘Ya sound like Gears.’
‘Just as long as I don’t look like him, I’m good,’ Captain Ted replied bluntly.
Kat rolled her eyes and said, ‘Oh, I forgot. This is the boys table.’ She left the table, and watching her leave, Captain Ted asked, ‘Where did all the nice women go?’
‘Ya mean the easy ones,’ Pax replied. ‘In case ya haven’t noticed the ratio of women to men is no longer in our favor.’
Looking alarmed, Captain Ted said, ‘We’re screwed and not in the good way.’
Wolfie laughed and said, ‘Ya guys are crazy. Gears tells me you’re gonna help us set up a base.’
‘Yeah I think Nelson is gonna work with ya on that,’ Pax replied.
By now Gears returned with Ip and asked, ‘Wolfie, have any of ya people met a recruiter?’
‘Ya mean the guy who can control the hunters?’ Wolfie asked.
Gears looked surprised and asked, ‘Are ya sure he’s controllin’ ‘em or does he have an armored hunter with him?’
‘Huh,’ Wolfie grunted. ‘Yeah there was a hunter wearin’ armor. I thought he must have been a cop or somethin’.’
‘Nah,’ Pax said. ‘That asshole was a super hunter. Ya should have shot him. Then yer recruiter woulda been torn to pieces by his own hunters.’
‘Good to know,’ Wolfie replied. ‘I’ll do that if he turns up again.’
‘Yeah, well, spread the word,’ Pax said dourly.
‘Did ya talk to the recruiter?’ Gears asked.
‘Nah,’ Wolfie replied. ‘The guys that did are all dead.’
‘So, ya dunno what he said?’ Gears asked.
‘Nah, sorry man can’t help ya,’ Wolfie replied. ‘But I do know he was hittin’ every town and city from Little Rock to Augusta.’
‘Do ya know where he went?’ Gears asked.
‘Nah, but I know he was last seen in Columbus,’ Wolfie answered.
As more and more people joined the party, the noise level around them was growing. People hadn’t had a drink in a long time, and Gears limited the alcohol to two beers per person, but even with two beers the crowd was getting loud and merry. Izzie appeared by his side and shouted, ‘They’ve started a bonfire on the beach. We should go see. This place is getting noisy.’
Having eaten and drunk their two beers, Pax and Captain Ted left to join the party. Gears was already on his feet and clearly he and Ip were leaving to have their own party somewhere else. Benny, who had an on again off again relationship with Lucie, disappeared with her. Actually he suspected Lucie was simply switching between Benny and Mackenzie, but as long as the kids didn’t draw guns on one another, he didn’t care.
As Gears and Ip were about to leave, he saw Ip stop and look intently across the room at a group of people. He turned, looked in the direction Ip was staring and saw Anna with a guy called Chris. He met Chris on the ship at the first dinner they had with Ca
ptain Ted and the survivors from the boats. Anna and Chris were standing with a short skinny man who looked too old to have such a shock of thick dark brown hair and they were talking intently about something.
Gears bent down to Ip and asked, ‘What?’
Ip continued to stare at the three people.
‘Maybe drunk brains read funny,’ he commented.
Looking puzzled, Gears replied dubiously, ‘Maybe.’
Ip thinks: There is a mind I cannot see. How can he be free of me? He speaks with the woman my man chose over me. But he is no longer hers to be. I see her mind and it is still full of fear. Who is the man that she stands near? Why is his mind so unclear? I do not understand. There are no minds I cannot see. How is this man free of me?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Making friends (Gears)
‘I wanna focus on the area Wolfie said the recruiter was last at,’ he told Nelson.
Sounding puzzled, Nelson asked, ‘Why are you so interested in that recruiter?’
He was sitting in the dirty mission room at the Naval base with Nelson. Ip and Isaac were with them looking quite bored while they waited for Nelson to start working with them to locate the super hunters.
‘I wanna know why the super hunters keep huntin’ Ip and us,’ he replied. ‘I dunno why they care. It implies they got some kinda organization and plan. And now they’re collectin’ the livin’ and I dunno why they’re doin’ that either.’
Nelson shrugged, took a sip of his coffee and replied, ‘As you always say…does it matter?’
‘Nah. We’re still gonna kill ‘em,’ he said bluntly. ‘But I don’t care what order we kill ‘em in and if there’s some intel available I might as well grab it as I go.’
‘Anyone ever mentioned you’re a bit ruthless,’ Nelson remarked.
No one had and he replied, ‘Nah. My performance reviews always described me as pragmatic. Why do ya ask?’
‘Never mind,’ Nelson said. ‘Why don’t you go do something useful while I talk to these two?’
He found the slow process of communicating with Ip through Isaac frustrating and was happy to leave it to Nelson. He thought he might as well help Pax and Captain Ted sort out the weapons, brief the combat team and load the bird with what they would need for a day of huntin’ hunters. Walking out into the Naval base, he grabbed a truck and headed to the Marine supply base. Within the hour Nelson radioed to let them know he had several targets. Hatch flew him, Captain Ted, Pax and six combat shooters across to the Naval base to collect Ip.
